Best GIF Maker Apps

Apps in this Guide

Giphy Capture

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Google Motion Stills

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Boomerang

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Momento

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Everyone has a few favorite GIFs, go-to images to share on the family text chain or in the Slack channels where the boss isn't lurking. While it might be funny to send that favorite GIF again, why notmore

Everyone has a few favorite GIFs, go-to images to share on the family text chain or in the Slack channels where the boss isn't lurking. While it might be funny to send that favorite GIF again, why not try your hand at personalizing your own homemade version? Whether it's a funny video you captured or a quick reaction selfie, it's time to put yourself out there with your GIFs.

As a general rule, you'll have lots of options to choose from in creating your own GIFs if you get yourself in the habit of shooting short videos with your phone. Mobile photographers can still explore GIF making through burst photos, or use of Apple's Live Photo options on newer phones. Anything that produces a burst of photos in short succession can be made into a GIF, though the resulting animation will usually be a little less smooth than utilizing a video source.

As GIFs have grown in popularity, even stodgy old text message chains are coming to life with moving images. GIF maker apps now offer a wide variety of features and many are experimenting with augmented reality inspired add ons like moving stickers and background animation. We played with dozens of GIF-making apps, took lots of videos and selfies, and can recommend the following easy-to-use solutions to create your first animated masterpiece.

Best Gif Makers

Let's make it move.

Giphy Capture

Giphy, the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the gif discovery world has a number of solutions for search and sharing great gifts with your friends, but their gif-creation app offers the most comprehensive solution for selfie gifs with extra flair.

Looking to add moving monster eyes on top of yours? Or change the sky to molten lava behind you? Giphy offers smart detection of the environment captured in your video to allow you to turn a selfie into a work of art.

Google Motion Stills

Google has created a great solution for gif-making, and on iOS it offers one of the easiest solutions for turning Apple's live photos directly into gifs. Upon opening the app, you'll instantly see the videos and live photos you've taken on your device's camera. Features include the ability to create looping or reversing gifs for export.

Boomerang

Instagram's offering, also built into its primary app, isn't truly a gif maker, but it does allow for a dead simple way to create a looping video that can be shared just the same. As you would expect, it connects directly to Instagram and Facebook sharing, but also allow for exports to your camera roll.

Momento

Momento's gif-making abilities include turning video and live photos, but it also smartly detects similar photos, or those taken in a burst to create gifs. It also offers filters, stickers, text, and some basic "AR" offerings like the ability to add snow falling over your image.